Electrosonic was awarded four top accolades at the 2005 UK AV Awards held at the Hilton Metropole in London. For the third year running, Electrosonic was judged to be the winner of Systems Company of the Year and Service Company of the Year. Building on previous years’ successes, the company also collected the awards for Business Installation of the Year and Consumer Installation of the Year.
Now in its seventh year, the Awards attracted a record number of high quality entries. The judging is carried out wholly independently by two panels of judges drawn from a range of AV disciplines, including consultants, producers, service providers and end users. They were looking for evidence of business success, innovation, and the delivery of AV systems and projects of genuine – and measurable – value to the industry’s clients. They were also looking for companies who had the courage to develop and implement new strategies, and the ability to demonstrate that they had been successful.
Electrosonic’s submission for Systems Company of the Year was based on the work achieved by its UK Solutions Business, which is a silver level CAVSP-qualified company. Electrosonic Solutions divides its activities into a series of inter-connected teams covering sales consultancy, project engineering and management, systems assembly and test, installation, programming and development. The strategy is to target market sectors where Electrosonic adds value, and to work with end users, designers and architects, independent consultants, and contractors.
The panel of judges commented: “Electrosonic’s years of experience, high-quality project references, and its ability to both design and implement systems made it the entry to beat in this category." They also remarked on the extent to which ICIA CTS (Certified Technical Specialist) and company-wide CAVSP qualifications have become an important feature of AV systems companies’ infrastructure and creds pitches.
As Service Company of the Year, the turnover of the Electrosonic UK Service Business showed a 43% year-on-year turnover uplift. It employs 70 people covering both corporate/leisure, and command and control environments, and its geographical remit has been extended to a new service base in Edinburgh. No outsourcing contracts have been lost since Electrosonic started doing outsource work, and it now has staff working on 20 sites. Business procedures include a dedicated staff intranet available to workers on remote sites and the use of call logging software linked to continuous assessment of customer satisfaction. The judges said: “The scope, growth and maturity of the Electrosonic offering won it this year’s Service Company of the Year Award for the third year running," with the judges commenting on its use of "intranet-based communications to keep off-site staff ‘in the loop’, as well as its continuing investment in training.”
Electrosonic was awarded Business Installation of the Year for its work at Barclays HQ. Electrosonic worked with Mark Johnson Consultants on the new building which includes two 100-seat conference rooms, six videoconference suites, five reception and break-out areas, 25 meeting rooms with fixed AV equipment, 321 client meeting and training rooms, 105 meeting rooms served by 33 sets of mobile equipment and a boardroom. There is also a broadcast media room and a 16-channel TV distribution system with the capacity to handle 1,280 end points and four channels of video over IP.
The judges praised Electrosonic for the methodologies and technical processes used to install and manage the project which had distinguishing features, such as a unified control system, broadcast studio, roll-about systems and television distribution.
And finally Electrosonic won the awards for Consumer Installation of the Year for its work at The Churchill Museum. The Museum opened in March 2005 after a 12-month installation contract period. The overall AV system in the museum includes over 70 exhibits showing documentary footage or interactive presentations and Electrosonic had to design and manage a museum-wide control system. The centrepoint of the Museum is the 15-m long interactive ‘Lifeline’ table. Images are distributed to the various displays using Cat6 cabling from centrally sited source equipment, which includes 41 computers, five eight-channel video servers, 18 solid state audio players, and 20 four-channel amplifiers. Control is over a virtual network and AMX Netlinx.
“Compact but complex installations like the highly successful Churchill Museum are relatively rare, and the installation breaks new ground in the variety and creativity of its exhibits as well as in the technical control solution," the judges commented. "Close cooperation between the client, consultants, designers and software providers was matched by that of the installer.”